Belgium the brave

Another beautiful European winter's day beckons and we’re off to Brussels. Trish will be working and I’ll do some tourist stuff.

Flew Alitalia from Milan to Brussels on a tired looking MD80. Typical Alitalia, the boarding process isn’t slick – particularly from the bus up the stairs into the aircraft in a deluge – but it does happen. The aircraft interior is green with a bit more green and there are liberal amounts of silver gaffa tape lashing things together.

Customs is a bit of a joke inside the EU.

The crew are: 1. Gorgeous – the male FA was tall and handsome with a square jaw wearing a beautifully cut uniform (something the Italians are very good at) and he knew it, and 2. Surly – the female FA was pretty grumpy, part of which was due to her spectacular head of dark fire-y red hair. It was like a controlled explosion, curly and passionate. However she really wasn’t too excited about pulling the lifejacket over her crowning glory during the safety demo and we all paid for it with nice cold foccaccias being almost flung during service!

We arrived at Brussels unscathed and were immediately struck by two things: 1. Customs is a bit of a joke inside the EU, & 2. Brussels is very much like Canberra with some old buildings thrown in. Very well planned, lots of infrastructure and a bit soul-less.

The hotel was just the standard business hotel. Plainly we didn’t book it! However our room overlooked the new and unfinished European parliament chamber. You could see right into it. Trish had her initial meeting with the Cocoa folks in the afternoon so I went off for a wander. Bought some clothes, then had dinner on my own in the room (happy about that) while Trish went and ‘did dinner’ with some of her new colleagues.

The next day would bring something special... well two things actually. But that's the next entry.